w  Oi a>\A\ 
f 

:  TWS 


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//A  1 


y  Cftwru 


i 


SPEECH  /6v/a4  /*?,*<> 


OP 


GENERAL  JAMES  M.  TUTTLE, 


OF  xow^.. 


AND  OF 


HON.  WM.  A.  WHEELER. 


Perhaps  the  serverest  loss  which  the 
Democratic  party  has  yet  suffered  in  the 
West  is  that  of  Gen.  James  M.  Tuttle,  of 
Iowa,  who  has  abandoned  the  party  un¬ 
equivocally,  and  told  in  vigorous  lan¬ 
guage  why  he  can  no  longer  remain  with 
it.  Gen.  Tuttle* was  a  war  Democrat, 
and  as  a  successful  officer  and  strong 
man  of  great  popularity  he  has  been  the 
head  of  the  Iowa  Democracy  for  fifteen 
years,  their  candidate  for  Governor  in 
1863,  and  for  Congress  in  1860.  He  was 
always  stronger  than  his  party,  and  has 
always  maintained  the  principles  for 
which  he  fought.  The  recent  successes 
of  his  party  and  the  doings  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  the  St.  Louis 
Convention  has  shown  him  what  would 
be  the  result  of  Democratic  victory  in  the 
Presidential  canvass.  He  therefore  re¬ 
pudiates  his  party  and  its  two-faced  ticket 
and  announces  himself  a  voter  and  worker 
for  Hayes  and  Wheeler.  This  he  did  in 
response  to  a  serenade  by  the  Hayes  and 
Wheeler  Club  of  Des  Moines,  on  Thursday 
evening  last.  We  take  the  leading  points  of 
his  speech  from  the  Iowa  State  Register. 
The  speech  was  impromptu,  but  is  none 
the  worse  for  that,  as  it  breathes  through¬ 
out  with  strong  clear-cut  sentences.  Gen. 
Tuttle  spoke  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of 
the  Hayes  and  Wheeler  Club  : 
When  I  concluded  to  change  my  party 


I  thought  that  I  might  be  allowed  to  do 
it  quietly.  It  was  a  private  act,  and  re¬ 
quired  no  public  announcement,  and  there 
was  no  one  to  whom  I  was  obligated  to 
account  for  such  an  action.  But  as  my 
course  has  been  so  assailed,  and  I  have 
been  called  so  serverly  to  account,  I  may 
as  well  embrace  this  opportunity  to  tell 
both  my  Democratic  and  my  Republican 
friends  why  I  have  left  the  old  Democ¬ 
racy,  and  why  I  am  here  to-night.  The 
act  of  my  change  was  a  private  one,  but 
my  reasons  for  so  doing  were  public  ones, 
and  they  may  be  told,  and  shall  be. 
[Cheers.]  I  am  no  speaker,  and  make  no 
pretensions  of  being.  But  I  can  talk  to 
you  as  neighbors,  Ihave  been  considered 
doubtful  by  many  Democrats  for  nearly 
two  years.  [Laughter.]  Indeed,  I  never 
have  been  a  Democrat  if  the  issues  on 
which  they  are  fighting  this  year  are  the 
principles  of  the  party.  [Great  applause.] 
But  nearly  two  years  ago  the  course  of 
duty  was  developed  much  more  plainly 
than  it  ever  had  been  before.  What  I 
had  seen  before  that  that  was  wrong  I 
had  continued  to  hope  would  be  found 
to  be  mistakes  that  would  be  mended. 

REBEL  DEMOCRATS. 

Nearly  two  years  ago  I  was  in  St.  Louis. 
Now,  there  is  nothing  peculiar  in  simply 
having  been  at  St.  Louis.  But  I  was 
there  also  in  1861.  [Cheers.]  That  was 
just  after  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  and 
St.  Louis  was  thoroughly,  Mildly,  in¬ 
sanely  rebel.  It  was  worth  a  man’s  life 
then  almost  to  be  seen  in  the  Union  uni¬ 
form.  A  Union  officer  about  the  hotels, 
where  congregated  the  noisest  secession 
elements,  was  hooted  at  and  derided,  and 
told,  with  sneers,  “Yes,  you’ll  go  South, 
and  you  will  come  back  as  the  Union  sol- 


2 


t,  - - - - - — "- —  ■■ 

diers  have  just  come  back  from  Bull  Run, 
with  your  tails  tucked.”  But,  as  I  re¬ 
member  it,  none  of  our  troops  from  Iowa 
ever  came  back  in  that  shape.  [Laughter 
and  applause.]  That  was  the  feeling  in 
St.  Louis  in  1861,  and  this  feeling  I  found 
there  again,  in  the  same  spirit  and  in  the 
same  places,  re-expressed  by  the  very 
same  men,  when  I  was  there  in  1874.  It 
was  then  I  heard  the  news  that  the  Dem¬ 
ocrats  had  elected  a  majority  of  the  na¬ 
tional  House,  and  these  same  fellows  who 
swarmed  about  the  hotels  talking  treason 
and  deriding  Union  soldiers  in  1861  were 
exultant  and  delirious  with  joy  this  last 
time.  I  remarked  to  a  gentleman  who 
had  been  a  comrade  with  me  in  the  war, 
“  This  looks  like  the  same  set  of  fellows 
who  were  spouting  treason  here  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  What  is  it  that  is 
exciting  them  so,  and  what  ails  them?” 
We  asked  a  squad  of  them  what  it  was 
that  made  “them  feel  so  good?”  I 
heard  one  of  them  say,  “We  have  got 
them  this  time.  We  can  beat  them  this 
time.”  We  asked  who  they  meant  by 
“them?”  They  replied,  “  We’ll  elect  the 
next  President,  and  then  we’ve  got  them.. 
Then  we’ll  get  pay  for  all  our  property 
destroyed  in  the  war,  and  then  we’ll  get 
pay  for  our  lost  slaves.  We  have  the 
House  overwhelmingly  now,  and  in  1876, 
the  Centennial  year,  we  can  get  the  Sen¬ 
ate  and  a  Democratic  President.  Then 
we  can  appoint  our  comiPittees  to  suit 
ourselves,  and  choose  our  own  Southern 
Claims  Committee  or  Southern  Claims 
Court,  and  make  good  our  losses  by  the 
war.”  They  meant  that  they  would  get 
pay  for  all  the  property  destroyed  by  the 
Union  army,  and  pay  for  all  their  eman¬ 
cipated  slaves. 

THE  EX-REBEL  PROGRAMME. 

Said  one,  “Give  us  possession  of  the 
Government,  and  the  North  will  be  the 
rebels  next  time.”  This  was  the  talk, 
and  the  talk  in  earnest — as  was  the  talk 
of  the  same  men  in  1861.  They  mean  it. 
They  talked  it  over  coolly  anid  seriously. 
Said  they  had  already  a  united  south, 
which  would  be  nearly  enough,  and  that 
then*  Democratic  allies  in  the  ISTorth  dare 
not  deny  them  the  little  more,  the  few 
more  votes  that  they  would  need.  This 
is  their  idea  to-day — to  gain  by  legislation, 
by  means  of  diplomacy  and  trickery,  what 
they  failed  to  gain  by  means  of  force.  I 
believe  it ;  I  know  it.  All  their  expres¬ 
sions  suggest  it,  and  all  their  actions  prove 
it.  What  else  do  they  mean  ?  Why  is  it 
that  the  State  of  Missouri  has  issued  to 
every  former  owner  of  slaves  in  that  State 
a  certificate  for  $1,000  for  every  slave, 
payable  when  the  General  Government 
will  pay  it  ?  This  very  thing,  the  total 


— — .r— i  ■  i.i  im  .  ■ 

amount  of  the  value  of  their  emanqf- 
patcd  slaves,  is  now  estimated  as  a  part 
of  the  State  debt  of  Missouri.  I  used  to 
think  that  this  was  a  Republican  false¬ 
hood — the  certificate  matter ;  but  it  is 
an  actual  fact,  and  these  certificates,  and 
all  certificates  of  showings  of  losses  sus^ 
tained  throughout  the  State,  are  being 
saved  up  as  carefully  as  money  against 
the  day  when  the  Democracy,  and  the 
rebel  element  ruling  it  in  the  national 
Government,  shall  have  attained  to  pow¬ 
er.  If  Missouri  will  do  this  thing,  and 
hold  out  this  promise  to  pay  for  all  . 
emancipated  slaves,  why  will  not  all  the 
Southern,  all  worse  rebel  States,  do  it, 
and  will  not  they  do  it  ? 

THE  CONFEDERATE  HOUSE. " 

When  these  things  came  to  my  knowl¬ 
edge  I  could  do  no  less  than  halt  for 
further  developments,  watching  suspici¬ 
ously  every  movement  made  thereafter 
which  I  could  see  had  a  tendency  towards 
drawing  the  Democracy  North  and  South 
nearer  together,  a  union  which  I  could 
see  would  inevitably  put  the  old  rebel 
element  at  the  head  of  and  virtually  in 
control  of  the  party.  [Applause.]  Events 
.have  culminated-  rapidly  since  then,  and 
I  had  not  long  to  wait  to  see  the  whole 
programme.  The  Democratic  House  soon 
gave  me  light  enough.  [Cheers.] 

For  some  time  I  have  been  ready  to 
answer  the  question,  “Have  you  left  the 
Democratic  party  ?”  I  have.  [Great  ap¬ 
plause.]  And  I  am  often  asked  now, 

“  Is  it  so  ?”  Will  you  vote  for  Hayes  and 
Wheeler?  It  is  so  ;  and  I  will  work  for 
them  as  well  as  vote  for  them.  [Re¬ 
newed  applause.]  My  Democratic  friends 
askme  for  my  reasons.  There  are  plenty 
of  them,  and  all  of  them  cannot  be  told  in 
these  few  remarks.  And  it  is  not  neces¬ 
sary  to  tell  all.  First,  let  me  say  that 
my  abandonment  of  Democracy  was  not 
caused,  as  has  been  charged  by  the  press 
of  that  party,  because  of  the  currency 
or  tariff  questions.  I  have  no  objection  to 
those  planks  in  the  St.  Louis  platform. 
But  my  reasons  are,  as  I  have  already 
indicated,  and  will  now  state  further, 
The  Democrats  who  press  me  for  my 
reasons  may  know  them.  On  the  road 
the  other  day  I  met  an  old  Democratic 
friend — one  of  the  Van  Buren  County 
Democrats,  whom  Dave  Sheward,  in  his 
screed  in  the  paper  the  other  day,  said 
never  had  any  faith  in  my  Democracy 
after  I  went  into  the  war.  [Applause.] 
Quite  excitedly  he  wanted  to  know  if  it 
.was  true,  the  report  that  I  had  realy  left 
the  Democratic  party.  I  answered,  “It 
is  a  fact.”  He  asked  me  the  reasons  for 
it.  I  told  him  they  were  qi.ite  plenty 
and  sufficient,  and  as  we  had  plenty  of 


3 


time  I  would  tell  him  some  of  them. 
Something  of  what  I  have  already  stated 
here  was  first  said,  and  then  I  said  that 
the  first  thing  I  didn’t  like  in  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  House  was  the  appointment  of 
Fltzhugh,  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the 
Confederate  Congress,  as  doorkeeper  of 
the  House,  and  the  displacement  of  Union 
soldiers — many  of  them  crippled  in  the 
war — with  the  ex-members  of  the  rebel 
army.  [Great  applause.]  He  wanted  to 
know  if  they  didn’t  have  a  right  to  do 
this.  I  answered  that  they  had,  but  that 
I  also  had  the  right  to  disapprove  and 
denounce  it.  Another  tiling  I  didn’t  like 
was  Ben  Hill’s  rebel  speech  and  its  bold 
utterance  of  treason,  and  I  didn’t  like  the 
rebel  yell  in  response  to  it  all  over  the 
South,  for  I  had  heard  that  yell  before, 
and  I  knew  what  it  meant.  [Great 
cheers,]  They  tell  me — the  Democrats — 
that  I  am  “  scared  of  Ben  Hill.”  I  don’t 
think  I  am  :  I  don’t  think  I  was  u  scared 
of ’’any  of  the  Hills  when  I  met  them 
in  the  South ;  I  do  not  remember  that  I 
was.  [Great  cheering.]  Then  I  told  my 
friend  how  worse  than  all  of  the  many 
bad  and  unblushing  acts  of  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  House,  I  esteemed  as  infamous  the 
act  of  appointing  to  the  clerkship  of  the 
leading  committee  of  the  House  the  man 
Hambleton,  who  named  his  son  John 
Wilkes  Booth,  after  the  assassin  of  Presi¬ 
dent  Lincoln.  [Immense  cheering.]  This 
outrageous  act,  in  truckling  to  the  rebel 
element,  the  Northern  Democracts  dare 
not  disown,  and  for  all  I  know,  tins  man 
is  still  clerk  of  that  committee.  The  lit¬ 
tle  child,  so  dishonored  by  its  name  and 
the  significance  of  it,  had  the  good  sense, 
thank  God,  to  die.  [Applause.] 

BEN  HILL’S  SPEECH. 

That  speech  of  Ben  Hill’s,  and  the 
record  that  the  Democratic  party  has 
made  in  regard  to  it,  would  have  been 
enough  of  itself  to  send  any  man  who 
cares  for  his  country  out  of  all  fellow¬ 
ship  with  it,  and  the  party  in  whose 
name,  and  by  one  of  whose  leading  mem¬ 
bers  it  was  made.  Hill  in  that  speech 
defended  Andersonville  and  the  atrocious 
treatment  of  Union  prisoners  in  the 
Southern  prison  hells.  Could  I  endorse 
that,  and  still  remember  my  own  com¬ 
rades  who  suffered  in  them  more  than 
death  and  hell?  Can  any  party  succeed 
which  even  tacitly  endorses  sentiments 
like  these  ?  Hill  also  said  in  that  speech, 
“We  went  out  of  the  Union  hugging 
the  Constitution,  and  we  came  back  into 
the  Union  hugging  it.”  What  a  hug? 
[Great  laughter.]  That  was  what  they 
went  out  for,  not  to  be  rebels,  but  to  “hug 
the  Constitution  ” — of  the  Union  they 
were  trying  so  hard  to  destroy.  I  have 


seen  them  when  they  were  doing  this 
“hugging.”  [Applause  and  laughter.] 
I  remember  one  morning  in  April,  1862, 
the  first  day  of  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  as 
the  rebel  troops  came  bearing  down 
upon  us,  that  I  ascended  an  elevation 
to  watch  them  through  a  field-glass  as 
they  came/^It  was  a  grand  si°dit,  as 
they  came  in  three  columns,  with  their 
muskets  at  “  right  shoulder  shift  ” — that 
form  in  which  an  army  looks'its  grandest, 
and  by  which  it  always  appears  to  have 
three  times  its  actual  strength.  There 
was  a  blaze  and  shine  of  glory  on  those 
advancing  columns  that  I  took  to  be  the 
lustre  and  shine  of  bayonets  in  the  sun ; 
but  I  judge  now,  since  Hill’s  speech,  that 
it  was  not  bayonets  they  were  bearing, 
but  constitutions  they  were  carrying  along 
and  hugging.  [Vociferous  cheering.]  I 
saw  them  doing  a  good  deal  of  hugging, 
these  rebels,  who  were  not  rebels,  but 
simply  “Constitution  buggers.”  [Re¬ 
newed  cheering.]  The  boys  who  are  here 
before  me,  who  were  with  me  at  Donel- 
son,  saw  some  of  it  there.  [Laughter, 
and  cries  by  soldiers,  “  That’s  so.  We 
saw  them  in  a  good  many  battles.”] 
What  patri&ts  they  were,  doing  so  much 
for  the  Constitution  of  our  common 
country !” 

DEMOCRATIC  BITTERNESS. 

One  thing  I  have  now  come  to  which  it 
is  painful  to  speak  about,  as  it  is  largely 
a  private  matter.  So  far  from  being  al¬ 
lowed  to  leave  the  Democracy  in  peace, 
as  I  had  hoped  and  expected,  with  no 
noise  about  it,  you  have  seen,  many  of 
you  here,  what  has  been  said  and  charged 
against  me  in  the  Democratic  press.  But 
what  you  have  seen  is  nothing.  In  the 
last  ten  days  I  have  received  scores  of 
letters,  most  of  them  anonymous,  abus¬ 
ing  me  without  stint,  and  charging  me 
with  all  sorts  of  crimes.  These  things, 
which  would  annoy  any  man  who  had 
feeling,  have  simply  confirmed  me  in  my 
estimate  of  many  members  of  the  party 
I  have  left,  and  have  simply  intensified 
my  conviction  that  my  course  was  and  is 
right.  I  can  see  by  these  an  explanation- 
of  one  thing  that  puzzled  me  in  the  ca¬ 
reer  of  my  old  comrade  in  arms,  Gen. 
John  A.  Logan.  Logan  and  I  were  a 
great  deal  together  in  the  fore  part  of  the 
war,  and  we  talked  things  over  as  fellow 
Democrats,  and  in  every  respect  nearly 
we  agreed.  After  the  close  of  the  war 
we  met  again.  When  I  had  parted  from 
him  he  was  a  Democrat ;  then  he  was  a 
Republican  and  bitterly  anti-Democratic. 
I  said  to  him,  “I  can  understand  your 
course  in  changing  parties,  and  I  cannot 
blame  you  much  ;  but  what  I  cannot  un¬ 
derstand  is  what  makes  you  so  terribly 


4 


bitter  against  the  Democrats.”  He  re¬ 
plied,  “You  will  never  understand  till 
you  yourself  leave  the  Democratic  party, 
which  day  will  surely  come ;  but  then 
you  will  see  it  plainly  enough.  You  will 
get  all  sorts  of  anonymous,  villianous, 
cowardly  letters,  charging  you  with  all 
sorts  of  crimes,  and  heaping  upon  you  all 
sorts  of  vile  abuse.” 

THE  REBEL  ABUSE  OF  THE  GENERAL. 

I  know  the  public  charges  made  against 
Logan,  and  I  know  personally  what  atro¬ 
cious  lies  many  of  them  were,  and  I 
could  not  conceive  that  partisan  malig¬ 
nity  could  go  any  farther  than  it  went  in 
the  coinage  of  thepa.  But  now  I  do  see. 
These  letters  I  have  received  charge  me 
with  being  a  robber,  an  incendiary,  and 
a  murderer  !  These  charges  they  make 
to  described  my  career  and  record  as  a 
soldier.  Can  I  be  blamed,  then,  in  view 
of  such  abuse  as  this,  for  departing 
from  my  resolved  purpose  of  privacy, 
and  publicly  hurling  back  upon  their 
authors  all  such  accusations.  When¬ 
ever  you  find  one  of  these  men  charging 
me  with  these  things,  scratch  his  skin, 
and  you  will  find  a  rebel.  [Tremendous 
applause.]  Let  me  refer  to  some  of  these 
charges  briefly.  I  will  not  be  long,  al¬ 
though  I  find  my  time  far  too  short  for 
telling  it  all,  and  I  do  not  want  to  weary 
you.  They  say  I  stole  cotton  and  made 
money  by  it.  It’s  a  lie.  [Applause.]  I 
say  it  with  that  word  because  that  is  the 
word.  [Great  applause.]  I  captured  but 
two  lots  of  confederate  cotton,  as  it  was 
called — cotton  belonging  to  the  rebel 
government.  I  turned  it  over  and  took 
duplicate  receipts  for  it — one  of  which  I 
sent  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
where  it  is  now,  and  the  other  I  kept  and 
now  have  it.  I  never  made  a  cent  in 
cotton,  and  never  tried  to  do  it.  I  make 
short  work  of  these  charges,  because  that 
is  all  there  is  of  it. 

THE  VICKSBURG  SOLDIERS  GOLD  SPECU¬ 
LATION. 

They  say  I  speculated  in  gold  while  at 
the  head  of  my  command.  It’s  a  fact. 
[Laughter. ]  The  Wall  street  brokers 
were  running  up  the  price  of  gold,  spec¬ 
ulating  on  the  fast  increasing  perils  of 
the  Republic,  saying  that  Vicksburg  could 
not  be  taken,  and  that  therefore  the  re¬ 
bellion  wonlcl  be  victorious.  They  did 
not  scruple  thjus  to  speculate,  even  if  it 
was  destroying  £he  Government  and  help¬ 
ing  the  Confederates.  Wall  street  and 
the  rebels  were  .tojgether  then,  as  they  are 
now,  [immense  applause,]  and  they  bet 
against  us.  That  w  as  all  there  was  of  it. 
We  knew  we  could  vtake  Vicksburg,  and 
knew  when  it  would  pe  taken  before  Wall 
street  did,  We  knew  th'e  Mississippi  would 


go  down  so  that  we  could  land  on  the 
rebel  side ;  we  had  already  landed  on  the 
other  side,  and  knew  that  when  we  did 
land  on  their  side  there  would  be  trouble. 
So  in  April  we  organized  together  a  num¬ 
ber  of  our  officers,  and  formed  a  club — 
[laughter] — all  drew  our  pay,  and  got  all 
the  money  we  could.  I  put  in  this  all 
my  money,  and  everything  that  I  had, 
and  borrowed  every  dollar  that  I  could. 

We  all  put  in  this  money,  our  pay  as 
soldiers,  and  made  a  purse  of  it,  and  sent 
a  man  to  Wall  street  to  sell  gold  short  at 
seller’s  option  on  ninety  days,  and  put  up 
our  money  as  margins.  It  was  simply  a 
bet  on  our  part  that  we  could  take  Vicks¬ 
burg,  and  that  we  would  do  it,  and  a  bet 
on  Wall  street’s  part  that  we  couldn’t 
arid  wouldn’t.  We  staked  our  lives  too 
on  top  of  the  bet.  We  did  take  Vicks¬ 
burg.  [Great  cheering,  frequently  re¬ 
peated.]  The  river  went  down,  and  we 
went  in.  [Renewed  cheers.]  We  won 
our  bet,  and  Wall  street  lost.  [Laughter.] 
We  made  money — I  made  money,  lots  «f 
it,  and  I  am  glad  of  it.  It  served  a  good 
purpose  to  the  Union,  too,  as  well  as  to 
our  pockets.  It  was  not  known  the  day 
our  gold  was  sold  whose  it  was ;  but  the 
next  morning  it  was  announced  in  the 
Yew  York  press  that  it  was  the  money  of 
the  Union  officers  before  Vicksburg.  In 
twenty-four  hours  gold  went  down  fifteen 
cents.  [Cheers.]  Some  of  the  noble  men 
who  fell  in  the  capture  of  Vicksburg  were 
in  “the  club,”  and  their  families  to¬ 
day  are  saved  from  poverty  by  the  profits 
of  this  soldiers’  bet  with  Wall  street. 
[Subdued  applause.]  You  may  call  it  a 
bet,  and  morally  wrong,  if  you  choose. 
I  am  willing  to  accept  the  responsibility 
of  it  as  it  is.  [Applause.]  So  I  did  spec¬ 
ulate  in  gold  while  I  was  actually  at  the 
head  of  my  division,  and  that  one  charge 
is  true.  [Laughter.] 

THE  BURNING  OF  RICH  REBEL  HOUSES. 

Another  charge  is  that  I  am  a  house 
burner.  The  news  that  I  have  left  the 
Democratic  party  seems  to  have  got  away 
down  in  the  old  rebel  country,  and  some 
one  down  on  the  Lower  Mississippi  writes 
to  a  St.  Louis  paper,  wondering  if  I  am 
the  General  Tuttle  whose  troops,  on  the 
march  from  Milliken’s  Bend  to  Grand 
Gulf,  burned  so  many  fine  houses  on  Lake 
St.  Joseph,  among  them  the  finest  resi¬ 
dence  in  all  the  Southern  country,  that  of 
Col.  Bowie,  the  inventor  of  the  famous 
Bowie  knife.  I  am  the  man,  [much 
laughter  and  applause,]  the  same  General 
Tuttle  who  with  his  boys  went  along 
there.  Yearly  all  the  houses  were  biu^ied 
before  my  command  came  up.  The  Bowie 
mansion  was  not.  I  was  in  it.  It  was 
the  grandest  house  I  ever  saw  or  read, 


5 


about.  The  house  and  furniture  are  said 
to  have  cost  $500,000.  The  upholstering 
was  grand  beyond  all  description.  I  found 
a  number  of  Union  soldiers  in  the  house, 
belonging  to  Steele’s  division,  'which  was 
just  ahead  of  mine.  They  were  lounging 
around  in  their  muddy  boots,  enjoying 
the  luxuries.  I  sent  them  on  to  their 
command,  and  passed  on  with  the  head 
of  my  division.  My  command  was  prob¬ 
ably  five  miles  long,  along  the  road. 
After  about  half  of  the  division  had  passed, 
and  I  was  about  two  or  three  miles  away, 
I  looked  back,  attracted  by  an  immense 
blaze,  and  the  Bowie  house  was  gone. 

I  suppose  it  was  burned  by  some  of  my 
boys.  I  do  not  doubt  it.  Some  of  my 
soldiers — of  Iowa  regiments,  too — were 
just  out  of  a  rebel  prison,  with  all  of  its 
tortures  fresh  in  their  minds — and  this 
was  their  first  march.  They  remembered 
well,  and  they  probably  know  something 
about  it.  Our  orders  were  all  against 
burning  the  houses.  I  suppose  we  could 
have  prevented  their  burning  if  we  had 
made  it  a  specialty.  [Laughter.]  But  we 
had  another  specialty  on  hand  just  then. 
[Renewed  laughter.]  This  is  my  record 
as  a  house  burner. 

THE  STEALING-  WOOD  CHARGE. 

They  charge  me,  too,  with  stealing 
wood,  and  name  the  amount — twenty 
cords.  The  amount  is  right.  [Great 
laughter.]  Philo,  there  (pointing  to  Mr. 
Case,  the  drummer  of  the  martial  band 
present,  sitting  at  one  side,  and  wrho  was 
drummer  of  Company  D,  of  the  Second 
Iowa,)  knows  about  that.  Also  Air. 
Moore,  sitting  there,  (pointing  to  Mr.  TV. 
S.  Moore,  of  the  Second,)  knows  about  it 
too,  and  was  there.  Both  of  you  helped 
load  the  wood,  helped  me  steal  it.  [Mr. 
Case — That’s  so,  General.  The  Second 
Iowa  can  swear  to  that.]  The  circum¬ 
stances  wrere  these : 

I  was  ordered  to  take  my  regiment  and 
proceed  to  Paducah  and  join  a  fleet  going 
up  the  Tennessee  river,  to  take  Fort 
Henry.  At  Cairo  I  learned  that  Fort 
Henry  wras  taken.  My  orders  were 
changed  to  proceed  to  Smithland  and  join 
the  fleet  going  up  the  Cumberland  rive;.* 
to  Fort  Done  Ison.  The  officers  of  the 
steamboat  that  I  was  on  with  my  regiment 
were  bitter  rebels,  and  sought  eveiy  op¬ 
portunity  to  delay  us,  so  that  we  couldn’t 
reach  there  in  time.  When  we  arrived  at 
Smithland  the  fleet  had  been  gone  six 
hours.  The  captain  of  the  boat  said  he 
had  no  Cumberland  river  pilot,  and 
couldn’t  go  up  that  river.  I  forced  him 
to  go  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and 
placed  a  file  of  soldiers  in  front  of  the 
pilot-house,  with  orders  not  to  allow  the 
captain  and  pilot  to  live  a  minute  if  any 


accident  happened  to  the  boat.  [Cheers.]  ~ 
Capt.  Mills,  of  Des  Moines,  afterward 
colonel,  was  officer  of  the  day,  and  had 
charge  of  the  squad,  and  all  who  know’ 
that  noble  man  and  heroic  soldier,  know 
that  he  would  have  performed  his  duty. 
But  we  had  not  been  going  long  till  one 
of  my  soldiers,  who  was  an  old  steamboat 
man,  told  me  that  the  captain  wras  “play¬ 
ing  it  on  me;”  that  there  wasn’t  half  a 
cord  of  wood  on  the  boat  altogether,  and 
that  the  purpose  was  to  run  out  of  wood 
at  some  point  beyound  the  reach  of  fuel, 
and  so  prevent  our  getting  to  Fort  Donel- 
son. 

I  began  to  watch  for w-ood.  [Laughter.] 
Soon  I  saw  some — this  same  twenty 
cords.  I  ordered  the  captain  to  land  the 
boat  for  the  wood.  He  protested  that  he 
didn’t  need  it — that  lie  had  plenty  of  it. 

I  told  him  that  he  could  pull  ashore  or 
pull  hemp.  [Laughter.]  He  landed  the 
boat.  [Cheers.]  A  fussy  old  rebel  was 
on  the  spot,  the  owner  of  the  wood.  The 
captain  asked  him  if  he  would  sell  it — 
with  a  rebel  wink.  The  owner,  of  course, 
said  no.  I  said  we  would  take  it  with¬ 
out  making  a  bargain.  He  said  we 
couldn’t  take  it.  I  replied  perhaps  we 
couldn’t,  but  we  would  try.  [Laughter.] 
We  tried,  and  every  man  in  the  regiment, 
officers  and  all,  were  soon  loading  wrood, 
and  it  was  on  the  boat  speedily.  Yes, 
every  soldier  in  the  lot  helped  me  to  do 
that  stealing.  [Laughter.]  The  owner 
wanted  to  know,  as  we  were  leaving, 
who  was  going  to  pay  him  for  the  wood. 

I  told  him  that  I  didn’t  know,  and  that 
all  I  knew  was  that  we  were  bound  for 
Fort  Donelson,  and  no  rebels  were  going 
to  stop  us  on  the  trip  if  we  could  help  it. 
That  is  the  story  of  the  'wood.  [Cheers.] 

I  don’t  know  exactly  how  much  I  stole. 

I  didn’t  ask  the  price,  and  didn’t  pay  for 
it.  But  we  did  get  to  Fort  Donelson, 
and  some  of  you  have  heard  of  the  fun 
that  the  Second  Iowa  had  there  with  that 
lot  of  Ben  Hill’s  “  Constitution-huggers.” 

THE  SECOND  IOWA’S  FIRST  REBEL  FLAG. 

They  say  I  am  a  murderer.  Well  I’ll 
tell  you  about  that.  Some  anonymous 
coward  has  sent  me  an  extract  from  a 
paper  in  Missouri — name  of  the  paper 
not  given,  but  the  piece  cut  out — charging 
me  with  having  murdered  a  man  in  Stew¬ 
art,  Mo.,  and  with  shooting  men  after 
they  had  surrendered.  As  to  the  first, 
that  was  an  incident  of  our  trip,  as  we 
first  went  to  the  front.  The  town  was 
on  the  Hannibal  and  St.  John  road.  The 
Second  Iowa  was  the  first  Union  regi¬ 
ment  that  made  the  trip  along  the  whole 
length  of  the  line.  Others  bad  gone 
part  of  the  way,  but  the  Second  made  the 
whole  trip,  and  were  the  first  Union 


I 


6 


troops  that  the  rebels  down  there  had 
seen.  As  wre  came  up  to  this  little 
town,  a  rebel  flag  was  streaming  from  a 
pol  e  in  a  dooryard.  It  was  the  first  rag 
of  the  Confederacy  my  boys  had  seen, 
and  they  said  it  must  come  down. 
[Cheers.]  I  anticipated  no  trouble,  but 
after  the  boys  w'ent  up  there  I  heard  some 
shots,  and  then  I  went  up.  A  young 
rebel  had  heard  of  our  coming  to  the 
town,  and  had  raised  the  flag,  as  a  defi¬ 
ance  and  a  menance,  and  said  it  should 
float  if  he  had  to  protect  it  with  his  life. 
He  got  a  chance.  He  said,  with  his  re¬ 
volver  drawn,  as  the  boys  came  up,  that 
the  first  man  who  laid  hands  on  that  flag 
he  would  shoot  dead.  The  boys  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  take  the  tiling  down — and  he 
got  killed.  How  he  wras  killed  I  don’t 
know  exactly.  Plfllo,  there,  [pointing 
to  Mr.  Case  again,  sitting  near  by,  hold¬ 
ing  the  same  old  drum,  that  he  drummed 
through  the  war,]  can  tell  you  about  that 
better  than  I  can. 

Mr.  Case — The  fellow  said  he  would 
shoot  the  first  man  who  dared  even  to 
touch  the  flag  or  the  staff,  and  the  boys 
went  for  it.  He  tried  to  shoot,  snap¬ 
ping  his  revolver  twice.  He  didn’t  get 
a  chance  to  snap  it  again.  His  flag  came 
down,  and  so  did  he.  [Cheers.] 

The  General — Well,  that’s  the  story  of 
it.  I  didn’t  see  that  part  of  it.  I  saw  the 
flag  after  it  was  down,  though,  and  saw 
the  foolish  young  rebel  lying  there  dead. 

That’s  all  I  know  about  it,  and  per¬ 
haps  I  am  responsible.  If  so,  I  have 
nothing  to  take  back.  Our  business  down 
there  was  to  put  down  the  rebel  colors, 
and  of  course  we  commenced  as  soon  as 
we  saw  where  the  work  commenced. 
[Cheers.]  The  boys,  in  taking  down  the 
rebel’s  flag,  had  to  shoot  the  rebel  to  do 
it,  and  to  save  their  own  lives  in  doing  it, 
and  so  I  am  charged  with  murdering  him. 

In  having  done  my  duty  as  a  soldier,  in 
my  humble  and  yet  earnest  and  well- 
meaning  way,  I  am  now  called,  after  I 
have  left  the  Democratic  party,  a  robber, 
a  burner  of  houses,  a  murderer  ! — just  as 
Gen.  Logan,  honest,  noble,  true  hearted, 
and  patriotic,  was  so  stigmatized  after  he 
had  left  the  same  party.  Do  you  wonder, 
gentlemen,  that  I  have  been  stung  into 
making  publicly  the  remarks  that  I  have 
here  ?  I  have  no  abuse  to  make  of  any 
one.  I  call  no  one  by  name.  I  state 
simply  the  general  facts,  that  others  may 
see  as  well  as  myself  that  the  war  and 
the  hate  of  the  Union  soldiers  did  not  die, 
as  the  St.  Louis  platform  says,  eleven 
years  ago. 

THE  ST.  LOUIS  CONVENTION. 

That  convention  did  not  lpok  as  though 
treason  was  an  odious  thing,  nor  that 


rebels  were  ^  the  less  to  be  honored 
than  patriots.  That  gathering  proved 
again  what  the  Democratic  House  had  al¬ 
ready  proved,  that  the  old  rebel  element 
is  running  the  Democratic  party,  and  that 
its  whole  hope  of  success  is  staked  on 
then*  solid  support.  They  were  all  there 
at  St.  Louis,  and  were  the  lions  of  the 
day,  especially  honored  and  cheered  by 
the  convention,  and  honored  and  lionized 
by  the  same  gangs  of  rebels  who  were 
spouting  treason  and  abusing  soldiers 
there  in  1861,  as  we  were  going  to  the 
front,  and  who  were  talking  the  same 
treason  when  I  was  there  two  years  ago. 
[Applause.]  Why  is  it  that  the  nomina¬ 
tion  of  Tilden  has  so  revived  and  re-in¬ 
spired  the  old  rebel  element  ?  Why  so 
much  more  so  than  the  candidacy  of 
Greeley  four  years  ago,  when  there  was 
some  hope  of  a  new  party,  and  the  death 
for  good  of  the  old  Democracy?  You 
can  answer  as  well  as  I  can.  It  looks  * 
like  they  knew  their  man.  [Applause.] 
The  alarming  demonstration  daily  devel¬ 
oping  in  the  South  would  look  like  it.  I 
see  that  the  Leader  interviewed  my  old 
friend  Peter  Myers,  now  living  in  Mis¬ 
souri,  to-day,  and  that  Peter  says  that  the 
stories  of  raising  the  rebel  flag  in  Mis¬ 
souri  are  untrue.  I  hope  they  are ;  but 
the  reports  seem  to  be  well  authenticated, 
and  I  fear  some  of  them  are  too  true. 

For  the  people  to  do  these  things  would 
be  bad,  but  not  so  bad,  we'  must  remem¬ 
ber,  as  was  the  rebel  speech  of  Ben.  Hill 
in  Congress,  so  heartily  cheered  by  his 
Democratic  colleagues,  and  so  wildly  ap¬ 
plauded  in  the  South.  That  speech,  let 
me  refer  to  again  a  moment.  The  Demo¬ 
crats  and  Democratic  press  now  say  they 
do  not  indorse  this  speech.  But  they 
cheered  it  when  it  was  made  in  the  House, 
and  the  South  cheered  it,  and  their  denun¬ 
ciation  of  it  now  is  not  so  much  denuncia¬ 
tion  of  the  spirit  of  it  as  of  liis  imprudence 
in  making  it. 

HOOD  BYE,  DEMOCRACY. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  as  to  the  reason 
why  I  have  not  left  the  Democratic  party 
sooner.  They  say  I  want  office,  and  that 
I  have  wanted  office.  If  I  had,  gentlemen,  . 

I  would  have  left  the  Democratic  party 
years  ago,  for  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that 
1  have  said  for  years  that  there  was  never 
any  hope  of  the  Democrats  carrying  Iowa. 

If  I  had  been  an  office-seeker  I  should  have 
left  the  old  party  long  ago.  I  am  not  a 
candidate  for  office,  and  never  vail  lie.  I 
have  no  aspirations  for  prominence  in  pol¬ 
itics,  and  I  do  not  see  why,  when  as  a  pri¬ 
vate  ciitizen  I  have  tried  to  change  my 
party  quietly,  all  this  abuse  should  be 
heaped  upon  me.  I  can  stand  it,  though, 
and  it  in  nowise  changes  my  conviction  as 


7 


r"--  r  r  ~  r-»- . -  •t-'i  - - - 

to  my  duty,  only  to  intensify  and  confirm 
it.  [Applause.] 

I  feel  in  earnest  now  as  I  did  during  the 
war.  [Cheers.]  I  have  no  retreat  to  make. 
[Renewed  cheers.]  The  reason  I  have  left 
the  Democratic  party  is  that  I  have  no 
faith  in  it,  [cheers,]  and  no  faith  in  the  old 
rebel  element,  who  I  have  long  feared 
would  come  to  the  front,  and  who  I  now 
know  and  see  have  come,  and  whose 
coming  has  made  my  way  clear  and  my 
course  of  duty  plain.  [Great  applause.] 
Seeing  these  men  again  at  the  head  of  the 
party,  and  seeing  the  defiance  of  the  men 
who  last  held  office  in  the  National  Gov¬ 
ernment  under  the  Democratic  party, 
make  things  plain  enough.  Among  the 
last  Democratic  officers  of  any  note  were 
Floyd  and  Jake  Thompson,  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  Secretary  of  War  and  Secretary  of 
the  Interior.  They  stole  from  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  they  were  sworn  to  serve,  to 
help  the  rebellion  raised  to  destroy  it, 
and  beside  their  crimes  and  their  corrup¬ 
tions,  all  that  is  charged  against  the  Re¬ 
publican  officials,  admit  it  all  to  be  true, 
even,  sink  into  insignificance. 

Why,  old  Jake  Thompson,  encouraged 
by  the  defiance  of  Ben.  Hill  in  his  speech, 
went  down  to  Washington  a  few  months 
ago,  and  like  a  braggart  demanded  inves¬ 
tigation,  pompously  saying  that  he  would 
waive  the  legal  point  of  time.  He  went 
down  there  blowing,  and  got  sued — for 
the  money  that  he  stole  for  the  rebels. 
[Great  cheering.]  If  old  Floyd  were 
alive,  he  too,  probably,  would  go  down 
there,  under  the  protection  of  the  rebel 
shadow  of  Ben.  Hill,  and  demand  inves¬ 
tigation.  [Laughter.]  But  like  the  child 
covered  with  the  curse  of  the  crime  against 
Abraham  Lincoln,  he  also  had  the  good 


sense  to  die.  He  wa3  at  Fort  Donelson 
with  the  other  “  Constitution-hUggers.” 
but  he  skipped  out  early,  so  as  to  be  safe. 

If  he  had  stood  his  ground  like  a  brave 
man,  he  would  probably  have  had  the 
good  fortune  to  die  earlier.  [Laughter.] 
But  he  fit  out.  He  could  steal  for  the 
Confederacy,  but  he  wasn’t  willing  to  die 
for  it.  [Laughter.] 

It  is  his  fault,  gentlemen,  and  not  mine, 
that  his  memory  is  not  to  be  spoken  of 
with  more  respect.  This  Thompson  and 
this  Floyd  were  the  last  of  the  Democratic 
rulers,  and  they  represented  the  domina¬ 
tion  of  the  South  in  the  Democracy  then. 
And  Thompson  and  his  Mends,  and  the 
friends  of  Floyd,  are  again  pressing  to 
the  front  to  assume  party  control.  As 
they  have  come  as  leaders,  I  have  asked 
and  taken  the  privilege  of  leaving  the 
Democratic  ranks.  [Cheers.]  This,  fel¬ 
low  citizens,  is  why  I  am  here  to-night. 
[Renewed  cheers.] 

Finally,  gentleman,  I  would  say,  keep 
a  solid  front  and  we’ll  beat  them. 
[Cheers.]  I  hope  and  think  we  will.  I 
am  with  you,  and  with  you  in  earnest. 
[Great  cheering.]  Close  up  for  the  fight. 
They  mean  business,  and  we  must.  [Ap¬ 
plause.]  It  is  something  of  the  old  fight, 
only  it  is  to  be  fought  at  the  ballot-box  in¬ 
stead  of  on  the  battle-field.  [Renewed 
applause,  frequently  repeated.] 

I  thank  you,  gentlemen,  for  having 
heard  me  so  patiently.  I  have  not  tried 
to  make  a  speech  ;  I  am  not  a  speaker.  I 
have  tried  simply  to  tell  you,  my  neigh¬ 
bors,  why  I  have  changed  parties,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  make  brief  answer  to  a 
few  of  the  many  mad  and  venomous 
charges  which  have  been  made  against 
me  because  of  my  act. 


T 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  A. WHEELER, 

CANDIDATE  FOR  VICE  PRESIDENT, 

.A.T  ST.  -A-LB^ILTS,  VERMONT 


Republicans  of  St.  Albans  :  You 
honor  the  cause  of  which  I  just  now  am 
a  prominent  representative.  I  was  placed 
in  nomination  as  the  Republican  nomi¬ 
nee  for  Vice-President  in  the  national 
convention  by  the  action  of  the  States  of 
Vermont  and  Massachusetts.  It  is  the 
greatest  honor  of  my  life  that  the  Repub¬ 
licans  of  these  States  deem  me  sufficiently 
grounded  in  the  Yew  England  faith  Co 
be  one  of  the  representatives  of  their 
ideas  in  the  pending  canvass.  [Applause.] 
In  the  matter  of  my  faith  I  trust  they 
have  made  no  mistake.  [Applause.]  I 
believe  in  New  England.  I  believe  in 
Plymouth  Rock.  They  are  convertible 


terms.  One  of  the  most  gifted  of  New 
England  women  has  said  that  Plymouth 
Rock  is  not  quartz.  It  is  a  perfect  stone 
cut  of  the  mountain  without  hands,  and 
hands  cannot  prevent  it  from  becoming  a 
great  mountain,  filling  the  whole  earth. 
Every  church,  every  school-house,  every 
town-house  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pa¬ 
cific  has  Plymouth  Rock  for  its  founda¬ 
tion  stone.  Wherever  freedom  aims  a 
musket  or  raises  a  standard,  or  sings  a 
song,  or  makes  a  protest,  there  is  Ply¬ 
mouth  Rock.  Freedom,  the  church,  the 
school-house,  the  town-house,  these,  my 
friends,  form  the  very  cardinal  principles 
of  the  Republican  party.  I  have  often 


t' 

thought  and  often  said  that  the  Common¬ 
wealth  of  Vermont  composes  and  illus¬ 
trates  the  complete  realization  of  the 
highest  ideal  of  a  Bepublican  form  of 
government.  Where  else  can  you  find 
such  general  intelligence,  the  result  of 
your  free  popular  system  of  education? 
Where  so  much  Ifclelity  and  economy  in 
the  administration  of  State  affairs?  Where 
so  much  respect  for  the  civil  rights  of  each 
and  all  the  people  as  in  the  State  of  Ver¬ 
mont  ?  It  is  the  mission  of  the  Republi¬ 
can  party  to  confer  upon  all  the  people 
of  this  country,  in  all  the  States  and  in 
all  the  Territories,  the  inestimable  privi¬ 
leges  which  you  in  Vermont  enjoy.  It  is 
a  duty  to  which,  in  this  Centennial  year 
of  our  nation,  we  ought  to  address  our¬ 
selves  with  renewed  attention  and  fidel¬ 
ity. 

I  have  no  purpose  here  to-night',  my 
friends,  to  recall  the  memorable  conflict 
through  which  this  nation  has  passed,  and 
which  made  American  arms  forever  illus¬ 
trious.  But  let  us  never  lorget  the  obliga¬ 
tion  resting  upon  us  to  secure  the  results 
of  that  great  conflict  for  ourselves  and  for 
those  who  follow  after  us.  Never,  my 
friends,  were  these  obligations  more  ap¬ 
parent  and  imperative  than  now.  We  are 
already  engaged  in  another  conflict  with 
the  opponents  of  the  party  which  saved 
the  nation,  and  which  to-day  protects  its 
integrity  and  guards  its  honor.  As  in 
1860,  we  are  once  more,  my  friends,  face 
to  face  with  a  united  South,  with  the 
Democratic  party  in  the  North  as  its  sub¬ 
servient  and  pliant  ally.  In  every  late 
slave  State  in  the  Union  where  this  Con¬ 
federate  party  is  dominant  it  claims,  and 
may  receive,  130  votes  in  the  Electoral 
College.  It  has  complete  control  of  the 
lower  House  and  the  balance  of  power  in 
the  Senate.  There  is  not  to-day  in  those 
late  slave  States  any  man  holding  a  prom¬ 
inent  position  who  was  not  identified  in 
the  great  struggle  against  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  Not  even  in  the  State  of  Kentucky 
can  you  find  a  man  in  any  position  what¬ 
ever  who  was  not  engaged  on  the  rebel 
side.  This  is  the  condition  of  the  South 
to-day.  I  have  sat  for  months  during  the 
last  winter  in  Congress  by  the  side  of  sixty- 
one  men  who  a  few  years  since,  with  arms 
in  their  hands,  were  engaged  in  the  at¬ 
tempt  to  break  up  the  Government.  Now 
I  have  heard  those  men  defend  the  hellish 
atrocities  of  Libby,  Andersonville,  and 
Salisbury.  I  have  heard  Lincoln  maligned. 
I  have  heard  defended  the  right  of  a  Vir¬ 
ginia  justice  of  the  peace  to  detain  and 
open  the  mails  of  the  United  States.  C’an 
you  tell  me  where  is  the  difference  in  the 
spirit  which  twenty  years  ago  led  Missouri 
border  ruffians  into  Kansas  and  which  led 
to  the  massacre  at  Hamburg,  where  a  reg¬ 


■  — '  •)  ■ 'lf- — — flr-tfi-*.— n  1  -  ■  T  -r'-i  ~ 

ularly  organized  militia  company’were  first 
disarmed  and  then  murdered  in  cold  blood 
in  order  that  the  white  race  might  assert 
their  superiority?  My  official  relations 
have  called  me  during  the  past  two  or 
three  years  into  the  Southern  States,  and 
I  tell  you  what  I  know,  my  friends,  of  the 
real  feeling  of  the  Southern  people  regard¬ 
ing  the  reconstruction  acts.  They  regard 
the  amendments  to  the  Constitution  in 
reference  to  slavery,  and  the  laws  for  the 
protection  of  the  freedmen,  as  the  French 
provinces  did  then-  cession  to  Prussia  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet. 

It  is  to  the  South,  my  friends,  with  this 
spirit,  and  with  the  Democratic  party  of 
the  North  as  its  pliant  ally,  that  we  are 
asked  to  turn  over  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  with  all  its  powers  of  leg¬ 
islation,  with  all  its  machinery  of  taxa¬ 
tion.  No  such  proposition  for  audacity 
has  its  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  coun¬ 
try.  What  is  the  spirit  of  the  Democratic 
party  ?  Do  you  want  to  prove  what  the 
Democratic  party  of  the  North  still  is? 
Go  to  Washington ;  see  fifty  soldiers 
crippled  in  the  service  of  the  Union  turned 
out  of  the  House  to  make  room  for  as 
many  rebel  soldiers.  This  is  the  evidence 
of  the  spirit  of  the  Northern  Democracy. 

My  friends,  we  confront  the  old  issue, 
you  must  not  underrate  the  strength  of 
the  South  and  its  allies  in  the  North.  You 
ask  me  if  it  can  be  avoided.  I  tell  you 
yes.  It  can  be  avoided  in  the  old  way, 
and  in  the  old  way  only.  You  must  no t 
underrate  the  strength  of  this  alliance.  I 
have  a  confiding  faith  that  the  conscience 
of  the  nation  will  be  sufficient^  awak¬ 
ened  to  avert  this  great  peril.  Under  the 
lead  of  the  gallant  Hayes  who  perilled, 
his  life  on  the  field  of  battle — a  modest 
man — a  plain  man — a  man  who  has 
evinced  great  ability  in  his  administra¬ 
tion  of  affairs  of  the  great  State  of  Ohio — 
under  Hayes  the  Republican  party  will 
again  achieve  a  new  triumph.  ]  Applause.] 
What  shall  be  your  duty  in  this  canvass  ? 
I  tell  you,  freemen  of  Vermont,  What  I 
know — the  Democrats  are  making  great 
efforts  to  reduce  the  Republican  majority 
in  this  State.  Will  you  permit  this,  friends? 
[Voices — “No  !”  No  I”]  The  banner  of 
Vermont  was  never  yet  trailed  on  the 
battle-field.  Let  your  ballots  protect  the 
work  so  effectually  done  by  your  bayo¬ 
nets  at  Gettysburg  and  on  many  a  field  of 
strife.  As  you  value  good  government, 
as  you  value  sacrifices  of  the  past,  as  you 
hope  for  the  future,  let  your  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  the  Union  be  proved  by  your 
ballots  on  the  first  Tuesday  in  November 
next.  May  the  star  which  never  sets 
beam  with  new  effulgence  to  light  the 
other  States  to  victory.  [Great  and  pro¬ 
longed  applause.} 


